A judge has said a teenage rapist wanted to “experiment” after days of “trawling through” online porn when he attacked a 14-year-old girl.

This comes as the NSPCC has warned that children as young as five are committing sexual offences because internet pornography is warping their views of normal behaviour.

Meanwhile, an investigation in Scotland found that children as young as eight are sharing sexual images with each other via social media.

Exploitation

And the deputy children’s commissioner for England has told a committee of MPs that head teachers are failing to tackle sexual exploitation over fears about their school’s reputation.

A 15-year-old boy bound, gagged, beat-up and raped a 14-year-old girl in an attempt to re-enact hardcore porn he had seen on the internet.

Teesside Crown Court heard how the boy was led by a more forceful, younger friend to carry out the attack in April last year.

Internet

The judge told the boy his “interest in sexual matters was heightened” having spent many days “trawling through internet pornography”.

He sentenced the teenager to three years in prison.

The victim’s father said action should be taken to prevent youngsters being able to view hardcore pornography.

Mobile

He said: “Kids can get it on their mobile phones really easily. They can get it anywhere.”

He added: “There must be some sort of restrictions they can bring in. Surely the safety of girls like my daughter is more important than people’s liberty.”

Figures show that in the last three years, more than 5,000 child sex offences were recorded by police where the abuser was under 18.

Abusers

At least three police forces showed abusers were as young as five-years-old.

The NSPCC said children that age often copy behaviour they should not have seen.

Councils and police in Scotland gave details about ‘sexting’ – the practice of teenagers sharing indecent pictures by social media, mobiles and text – to a conference on child protection and the web in Stirling.

Incidents

Teachers, parents and children reported incidents to schools and police, but it’s believed many cases go unrecorded.

And Sue Berelowitz, the deputy children’s commissioner for England, told the Education Committee in the House of Commons that head teachers are worried people will think there is something wrong with their school if they take action on sexual bullying.